Openreach is the infrastructure division of the British telecommunications company BT Group. It was established in 2006 following an agreement between BT and Ofcom to implement certain undertakings, pursuant to the Enterprise Act 2002, to ensure that rival telecom operators have equality of access to BT's local network.[1][2]
Openreach manages BT's local network which connects customers to their local telephone exchange, starting at the Main Distribution Frame (MDF) in the exchange and ending at the network termination point (NTP) at the end user's premises. Openreach also manages the connections between the MDF and the BT Wholesale/Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) termination points located in the exchange, often referred to as jumper connections.
[edit] History
Following the Telecommunications Strategic Review (TSR), in September 2005 British Telecom signed Undertakings with Ofcom. The resulting organisation - Openreach - opened for business in January 2006 and reports directly into the BT chief executive.
Today, the company is structured so that British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly owned subsidiary which includes the four separately managed businesses and virtually all other assets of the BT Group.
In July 2010 Openreach signed an $800 million contract with ECI Telecom to help it service and create a fibre-optic network serving 18 million households in the UK.[3] The deal was the largest in ECI's history.
[edit] Operations
Field engineers install and maintain the physical network wiring from the telephone exchange into end users' premises. This is regardless of which telecoms provider is actually selling the service to the end-user. Openreach installs, services, supports and maintains the wiring, fibres and connections which link tens of millions of homes and businesses in Britain to their Communications Providers' networks. Openreach works on behalf of 400+ service providers in the UK. These companies hire Openreach to install/repair/provide a working service to anywhere within the UK.
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[edit] External links
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